As if West Texas needed another public health headline, Texas Parks and Wildlife has now confirmed avian flu isn’t just for birds anymore. Skunks, foxes, and raccoons in the Panhandle have tested positive, officially making this the worst “Noah’s Ark” reboot ever. The same strain already hit dairy cows, even jumped to humans, and now it’s making its way through the wild critters roaming our backyards.
Officials say infected animals have been spotted stumbling around, looking disoriented, with crusty eyes and snotty noses. Normally that’s just half of Tech Terrace on a Saturday morning, but this time it’s deadly serious. Because the flu is “fluid” (their word, not mine), it keeps adapting. The CDC already confirmed a death in Mexico linked to the strain, and while the current risk to humans here is supposedly “low,” we’ve all heard that line before.
For now, state agencies are urging Texans—whether you’re a rancher or just someone with too many raccoons in your dumpster—to report animals acting weird. Which in Lubbock might mean calling in half the population. Still, vets and wildlife officials want eyes on anything staggering, drooling, or otherwise giving off zombie-apocalypse vibes.
Great—rabies, measles, and now skunks with bird flu. At this point, Lubbock’s public health slogan should just be: “Try not to touch anything alive.”
https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/bird-flu-texas-panhandle-skunks-foxes-raccoons/
